Active envelope
![](https://d1f6o4licw9har.cloudfront.net/492x277/240b3f7e-e609-40e5-8779-cf55ba73ca97.jpg)
Fairs, exhibitions and other types of conventions spotlight a city as well as its facilities. Yet, Ágora Bogotá, which won a LafargeHolcim Acknowledgement Prize in 2014, is a rather “discreet and silent” building. Where many were expecting a formal demonstration, the Colombian studio Bermúdez Arquitectos and the Spanish architecture office Estudio Herreros preferred to design a simple volume. The challenge here was not to design a strange, convoluted shape for this location, but rather to conceive a highly functional and compact place.